Teaching & Classroom Portfolio

Sixth graders designed, curated, and publicly displayed a museum exhibit on issues of injustice, casting themselves as Social Justice Superheroes taking on the “supervillains” of bullying, discrimination, factory farms, health problems, and poverty.

As lead instructor of the elementary social studies methods course, I redesigned its structure, resources, and assignments to be coherent, practical, and equity-oriented for preservice teachers.

A step-by-step pathway for exploring contemporary political issues and racialized current events with young learners: Love and Listen, Educate, Talk, Search, Analyze, Conclude, Take Action.

Teaching to and through students’ cultural and linguistic strengths, with a daily vocabulary routine, a year-long social justice-oriented ELA overview, and a social justice vocabulary list you can download.

A leveled list of picture books and novels for exploring social class, race, gender, ability, family, immigration, peace, bullying, activism, the environment, and multiple perspectives.

Circle norms and a step-by-step routine for repairing harm and solving problems together, plus why home visits and family communication matter so much.

Curriculum, instruction, and assessment that explicitly teach students to be anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-classist, and anti-homophobic, with resources and a reading list from St. Louis and Chicago teacher communities.

Why daily opportunities to learn about and respond to current events from multiple news sources are crucial to a well-informed, participatory democracy.